Tokyo shares open flat despite Wall Street selloff

TOKYO: Tokyo stocks opened virtually flat on Friday as investors digested sharp selloffs on Wall Street.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index edged up 0.01 percent, or 2.91 points, to 27,244.22 in early trade and the broader Topix index was up 0.09 percent, or 1.69 points, to 1,921.61.

The dollar stood at 115.02 yen, slightly up from 114.95 yen.

The market turned lower at the opening bell and zigzagged between positive and negative territory after Wall Street shares plunged overnight after weak earnings from Facebook-operator Meta.

Tokyo stocks close lower on profit-taking

The Dow fell 1.5 percent while the Nasdaq lost 3.7 percent.

Meta announced its earnings shortly before the Tokyo market opened on Thursday, allowing players in Japan to react to the news hours before Wall Street did.

Still, the sharp selloffs of US shares weighed on the Tokyo market, Okasan Online Securities said.

"The Tokyo market is expected to trend softer," the brokerage said.

"The market had expected the sharp falls of Meta Platforms (on Wall Street). But the Tokyo market should also be ready to continue feeling the shock" particularly after the Nasdaq-100 index fell more than four percent, it said.

A silver lining came as Amazon issued robust earnings shortly before the Tokyo market opened Friday.

"This should provide support for the market. This earnings season so far indicates that investors must be selective and prudent in deciding which shares to buy," Okasan said.

Investors will continue to monitor moves by major central banks to hike interest rates, as well as the crisis in Ukraine, oil prices and corporate earnings, among other news, analysts said.

In Tokyo trade, Sony Group gave up earlier gains and fell 0.48 percent to 12,525 yen. So did Toyota, which lost 0.78 percent to 2,275.5 yen.

Nintendo jumped 4.75 percent to 58,800 yen, a day after it revised up its full-year profit forecast despite having to cut Switch sales targets over ongoing supply chain issues.

SoftBank Group fell 1.15 percent to 5,135 yen.

Advantest, which makes testing kits for semiconductors, fell 0.42 percent to 9,390 yen.

Heavily weighted Fast Retailing, which operates Uniqlo, surged 1.58 percent to 63,840 yen.

Construction equipment maker Komatsu rose 0.84 percent to 2,820 yen.